French and Turkish Disagreement Over Armenian Genocide

by niamhfoster | March 27th, 2012

When researching the Armenian Genocide debate about whether a genocide took place or not, I found this BBC new article from 2001 by Chris Morris. The article talks about a “political storm” surrounding France and Turkey because the French had passed a bill declaring that genocide had occurred, along with the mass murders of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The effects that have occurred due to this bill having been passed include the withdrawal of the Turkish Ambassador from France and demontrations in Turkey for a boycott on French goods. However, French politicians have argued that the bill has not been passed in the National Assembly to condemn modern Turkey.

The article goes on to talk about the National Pride within Turkey and the archive dispute, where historians and researchers are not allowed full access to Ottoman records and archives concerning the matter. Moreover, the article mentions the ongoing argument over how many Armenians died in 1915. The Armenians argue that 1.5 million Armenians died in the genocide whereas, the Turks argue that there was no genocide and that 300, 000 Armenians died.